12 Ways To Turn Your Life Around In 12 Months Or Less

The road to success is rarely straight. Anyone who has achieved success in any area of their life will likely tell you that their journey was not an easy one. Roadblocks, dead ends, disappointments, bad decisions, and failures (collectively referred to as “experience”) are often the stepping-stones that forge the path to success.

Most people who have achieved success have also hit rock bottom somewhere along the way. But it was the experience of hitting rock bottom that gave these individuals the motivation they needed to make dramatic changes in their life and propel them towards success. As the attitude and achievement expert Dr. Willie Jolley once said: “a setback is a setup for a comeback.”

If you wake up one day and realize that the life you’re living is not the life you want, don’t beat yourself up about it. Accept where you are, and more importantly, accept the responsibility for changing where you’re going to be.

You cannot change your life overnight, but you can most certainly change the direction of your life overnight.

Here are 12 things you can start doing immediately to turn your life around and get back on track to achieving success:

1. Read daily

If you want your life to get better, you need to start making better decisions. To make better decisions, you need to equip yourself with new ideas and better information. Get into the habit of reading at least 10 pages of great information every single day. At this rate, you’ll be able to finish at least 1 new book per month, for a total of 12 new books per year.

Don’t read fiction. In most cases, fiction is meant to entertain you, but not empower you. You should alternate between non-fiction categories that have a direct correlation to the areas of your life you want to improve. Examples of good categories include: health, personal finance, wealth creation, relationships, business, self-help, spirituality, productivity, success, and inspirational biographies. The wisdom and ideas you will get from these types of book will undoubtedly help you to succeed.

2.Put your goals in writing

Without question, the most successful people in the world all have goals. Their goals are the benchmark against which they measure their results. People without goals often have no direction. Like a hamster on a wheel, they move but go nowhere.

Turning your life around begins with identifying exactly what you want to achieve and then creating a strategy for achieving it. Give your goals deadlines, and identify the resources you will need and the actions you must take in order to accomplish them. Read your goals every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to sleep to ensure your mind stays focused on your objectives.

3. Dissolve relationships with people who hold you back

There may be some people in your life that you are better off not spending time with. Not everyone has habits or attitudes that are conducive to success, and unfortunately those habits and attitudes are contagious. Like crabs in a bucket, these people are the first to pull you down the moment they see you trying to climb to a higher level. You may have friends, coworkers, or even family members who fit this description.

It is not always a good idea to abruptly cut people out of your life (doing so typically arouses resentment). Some relationships should be dissolved gently. Gradually decrease the amount of time you spend with the people who you don’t want around you as you move forward. Use the time you would otherwise be spending with them to build new relationships with positive people who support and encourage your success.

4. Stay hydrated and exercise regularly

Success doesn’t come easy. It takes a lot of hard work. In order to put in the work necessary to get to the next level without burning out, you need to build up large reserves of physical and mental energy.

The first thing you can do to immediately increase your energy levels is to drink more water. Water helps replenish your system, improve digestion and eliminate waste from your body. Many people make the mistake of thinking they are tired or hungry when in reality they are just dehydrated. Drink a large glass of water as soon as you wake up, drink a few glasses throughout the day and before each meal, and drink another glass in the evening before you go to sleep.

The second thing you should do is exercise for at least 30 minutes (go for a run or go to the gym) no less than 3 times per week. Regular exercise helps strengthen your heart and lungs, improves your flexibility and strength, helps manage your weight, prevents illness, decreases stress, and it even helps you to get better sleep – all of which have positive effects on your energy levels, overall health, focus and productivity.

5. Start a savings plan

There’s an old Chinese Proverb that says: “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” When it comes to saving money, this philosophy is just as valid. If you haven’t been saving a portion of your income for investment and future use, the best time to start doing so is now. Most financial planners would agree that you should be saving a minimum of 10% of your monthly income on a consistent basis. Unfortunately most people spend the majority of what they earn (sometimes more) and invest very little for the future.

Don’t make the mistake of working hard for money, and then using that money to pay everyone else except you. Pay yourself first. If you don’t think you have the discipline to do this, go to your bank and arrange for a percentage of the income you deposit to be immediately transferred to a savings or investment account. Learn to live off of at least 90% of your income. Your future self will thank you for it.

6. Turn your car into a classroom

If you work full-time, you probably spend somewhere between 5 and 10 hours per week commuting to and from work. Instead of listening to music or the radio during this time, start listening to inspiring and educational content. Most books have an audio version, and there are plenty of great podcasts that you can listen to for free on iTunes. With an abundance of great content on virtually every subject at your disposal, you don’t have to go back to school to get more education.

7. Stop watching TV

If you pay for a monthly cable subscription then do yourself a favor and cancel it. Seriously. Watching television is arguably one of the most toxic, unproductive, time-wasting activities of modern society. Stop wasting precious hours of your day on negative news, sports, advertisements, and reality shows that add no real value to your life. Start using the hours you waste channel surfing on activities that are more productive.

If for whatever reason you just can’t live without watching a specific game or episode, then add it to your schedule, watch it online (on Apple TV or Netflix, for example), and make it a social event by inviting friends or family to join you.

8. Practice public speaking

The ability to speak confidently and communicate articulately is one of the most valued and rewarded skills in the marketplace today. People who are good communicators are able to navigate their way through life with ease and enjoy more success than those who are not. They earn promotions, they build key relationships, they present their ideas clearly, they resolve disputes, and they typically earn the respect and admiration of the people around them. They are leaders in their organizations, their families, and their communities.

Most people are terrified of speaking in public, and they will do almost anything to avoid it. This presents a tremendous opportunity for those who are willing to step out of their comfort zone and develop this rare skill. One of the places you can go to practice your communication skills in a non-threatening, positive environment is your local Toastmasters club. Most of these clubs host weekly meetings where anyone is welcome to attend and participate. As you become a stronger communicator, people will begin to perceive you as a leader, and more opportunities will come to you as a result.

9. Stop complaining

One of the worst habits a person can have is the habit of complaining. People who complain are usually negative and pessimistic by nature. Don’t be one of them. If you encounter problems or challenges, don’t complain about them. If you catch yourself complaining about something, bite your tongue and reframe the situation. Complaining about a situation doesn’t change it. Get proactive and focus on finding a solution. A Napoleon Hill once said: “Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.” Look for the benefit in each situation.

10. Learn a new skill

A great way to bring some more excitement into your life is to learn something new. Consider learning to play an instrument, learning to speak a new language, joining a club, taking a class, or playing a sport you’ve never played before. The purpose of doing this is to ignite your sense of wonder and creativity, while simultaneously getting you out of your comfort zone and into new experiences.

11. Start a business

If you don’t already own your own business, there is no better time to start one than right now. Advances in technology have removed virtually all barriers to entry for aspiring entrepreneurs. Anyone with an internet connection and a credit card can start a business, and there is no shortage of training and resources available to help you get started.

For about as much as it costs to stay in a hotel for a weekend, you can buy a web domain, create a website, print some business cards, place a few ads online, and start promoting yourself to the marketplace. You could sell a service (graphic design or consulting, for example), sell your own products, or promote someone else’s products in exchange for a commission.

12. Look for opportunities to help others

Most people think only in terms of what they can receive from others instead of what they can give to others. But the law of reciprocity teaches us that if we want to receive, we should give. Giving ignites the receiving process.

If you want to feel good, one of the simplest yet most effective ways to feel good is to do something to make someone else feel good. If you want people to treat you with more respect, start treating other people with more respect. If you want your life to get better, help someone else’s life get better. The more you do for others, the more others will want to do things for you.

23 Comments

First I was like; yes, yes, solid, classic advice with a modern touch. He is putting reading as number one, good job, good job…

Then I read: 11. Start a business

WHOA!

Starting a business is not for everyone. And that made me think. Maybe the title should be something like “setting yourself up for success in 12 months” or so. If you hit rock bottom, these things are not your first priority. And even if you have a good work and follow these nice little tactics to pump yourself up, why on Earth should you just start a business, if you want to ensure success? If it fails for some stupid reason, (or some good reason, like you have no plan, no education/experience, no extra savings) it sure could make you feel down. Losing money is never fun either. If everyone could launch a business that makes more money than their regular work, we would either run out of physical resources really fast or just have the worst period of inflation ever.

Trying to Build Charisma? Pay Attention to How You Speak

Have you ever listened to yourself talking and said how on earth do I sound that terrible? Most of us don`t realize they have voice issues until we accidentally listen to our voice or seek professional help. But the truth is, 38 percent of your charisma comes from the way you talk.

The more appealing your voice is to people, the more trust they`ll put in you, but the opposite is also true. Stuttering, talking too fast, not breathing properly, can ruin your charisma and make people unable to enjoy your company.

Here are a few things you can do to sound more charismatic anytime you open your mouth:

Learn how to talk slowly

Talking fast is anti-charismatic. I was a fast talker, in fact, I was the quickest talker my debate team ever had – a teacher whispered to me fifteen years ago – and it drove me crazy until I did the right thing and hired a coach. What I learned later was so simple, yet so useful, and it helped me to this day control the rate at which I speak.

First off, you need to figure out your exact rate of speech. Get an article and record yourself reading it at your natural rate for 2-5 minutes. Now, divide the total number of words you`ve read over the total number of minutes and you`ll get your words per minute count “wpm.” If your rate exceeds 175 wpm then you, my friend, are a fast talker and we need to change that.

How? Pay attention to the rate at which most people talk, especially on TV and radio. You need to get a feeling for how fast you should speak and bring that feeling into your consciousness. Next, set some time every morning to read out loud. Practice the same article/passage you started with earlier until you can hold it to +160 wpm. Once you`re okay with it, move to different reading materials.

“Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

The third step is to bring what you`ve practiced to you daily life. Each day, pick one person and dedicate the entire conversation to speaking at a controlled pace. If you`re in this with someone, ask them to stop you as soon as you begin to talk faster. When this happens, stop, adjust, and get back to your controlled pace. You may feel pretentious but stay on the line. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will feel.

Use the power of pausing

Charisma is the mix between being liked and being equally respected. You need to convey power and you need to convey warmth both at the same time. And you can do this using two simple tricks: First, start reducing how quickly you reply to people and add more pauses to your speeches. Whenever it`s your turn to speak, pause for a couple of seconds before saying your first word. The second trick is to lower your tone at the end of important sentences to make an impact. Simply raise your voice at the beginning of the last sentence then go downhill from there.

Warm up every morning

If you have a morning routine, which I recommend you do, then you should integrate a few exercises to warm up you voice for a stronger tone and better pronunciation. This is what any self-respected voice coach will tell you.

So how to warm up? There are many things to do, some of which are:

Blowing through your lips

Blowing through tongue

Doing circles with your tongue and touching all your teeth

Yawning to exercise your soft palate

Overcome indecisiveness

You can call him wicked, morally corrupt or dishonest but how do you think Donald Trump has got his way into the White House? You can`t deny the fact that without his unbelievable conviction, the man who spends more time on Twitter than presidents of the P5 group combined wouldn`t have beaten all the odds and won the election.

The world, my friend, is a place where your ideas can mean nothing without the conviction to back them up. Hell, you can have people follow your utter nonsense and call you a leader with enough confidence and a few sharp words sprinkled on top of it. Several studies found that people follow leaders for the faith they convey not the ideas they pose, so imagine if you have both the right ideas and the rock-solid conviction in them. You`ll rock the world and bend it to your will.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

From my research, there are three ways to induce conviction in your conversations: preparation, intonation, and controlled practicing.

Preparation: Rehearsing what you`ll say before important meetings will help you sound more confident. Pick three interesting topics to talk about as you leave home, it`ll only take five minutes.

Intonation: Elevate your pitch as you stress over important words and keep it down as you finish a major sentence. Notice the difference between the following phrases: You can`t talk to me this way. You can “NOT” talk to me this way… Ever. Same words but different degrees of power. By raising your voice as you say “NOT,” you force the other person to take your words seriously. Watch CNN and see how reporters use a wide range of tones as they speak. Mimic them.

Controlled practicing: The next time you`re out with your buddies, pick a topic you know nothing about and talk about it with absolute conviction as if you`re the baddest badass of that topic. Eight times out of ten, your friends will accept your POV without much resistance. Pick-up artists use this exercise to overcome indecisiveness, and there`s nothing to stop you from using it to build your confidence.

So, where to start? Obviously, the best thing to do is hire a voice coach. They will hold you accountable and make sure you do the exercises on time. Warren Buffett still has his Dale Carnegie public-speaking certificate hung on his wall because of how it improved his life.

But what if you can’t afford a coach? Then I suggest you at least do 5 minutes of warming up each morning and set aside 10 more for reading out loud. If you can guarantee those 15 minutes every day for a year, then I’m sure your charisma will multiply.

How do you build charisma? Comment below!

It’s Not Always About the Goal, Sometimes the Journey Is More Important

There is nothing wrong in setting a goal in life in order to help manifest your vision of yourself years from now. These goals serve as a challenge so you will push yourself to do better. The only problem is when you become too obsessed with the bigger picture and you tend to forget the small details. You end up stressing out on how to get to the end that you no longer enjoy the process.

It is easy to lose sight on the most important things in life if you obsess on the bigger goal that needs to be achieved. You spend too much time planning and thinking how to move forward. You force yourself to forget everything else just because you really want to reach a goal. Take a step back and ask yourself, “Am I still happy?” “What have I missed because I was very goal-oriented?”

Eventually, you will realize that even if you have achieved the bigger goals, you have not found true happiness. It seems like you have won, but deep inside, it feels empty.

Let us take people who are traveling for instance, everyone is too busy taking photos and looking good in them instead of enjoying the sites and the entire experience. The lesson is to stop taking control of everything and savor the moment. Put the camera down and soak in the beauty of the moment.

Here are 5 reasons why the journey you’re on is more important than the eventual goal:

1. Achieving goals doesn’t mean you are successful

One of the reasons why people obsess with what the future holds is because they think that achieving goals means they have succeeded in life. By constantly doing this, you anchor your entire existence on that goal. The moment you fail in achieving the goal, you think that you are a big failure, which is not true. If you enjoy the process, regardless of the outcome, you will still feel good. You have traveled, learned from your mistakes, met people and become inspired.

2. Life is about making memories

For instance, you are running a business. You have this idea that you can only call yourself successful if you have made lots of money. Whether it is in business or in life, creating memories is more important than raking in lots of income. It is about the people you have helped by employing them.

It is also about the customers who were satisfied because you cared for their needs. It is also about how you overcome the challenges with your entire team, along with the members of your family. These moments, big or small, create great memories. Cherish them and you will be happy.

“Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” – Rosa Parks

3. The plan won’t always be perfect

Again, there is nothing wrong in having a plan. It is great if you know where to go first and what to do next. However, this should come with the mentality that not all things will go as planned. Nothing will ever go the way they are meant to be. There are unexpected changes along the way.

The key is how you embrace things that happened not according to plan and still find meaning in them. Happiness is about going with the flow. It is about trusting that good things will surely come along the way. It is also in letting go of a rigid plan that you learn to embrace life in all its complexities and uncertainties.

The biggest problem when you are too obsessed in following a plan is that you are consumed with the idea that there is only one path. There is no other path towards success and you should stick with what you are already comfortable of. Along the way, you will feel too comfortable that you are no longer willing to take the risk.

You are too scared to step out of your current path. You don’t want to move away because you think it will derail the achievement of your goals. You are no longer excited in trying new things. Soon, your life becomes really dry and you won’t see the meaning of everything that you do.

“Step so far outside your comfort zone that you forget how to get back.”

5. It is about following your heart

Take a moment to reflect and think about the plan that you had right from the start. Is it really what you want, or are you just doing it because it is how success was defined by people around you? Delve deeper and listen to your heart.

You might be on a path that you don’t really want, but you are forced to be in. Listen to your heart’s desires and this will make you a better person. Learn how to follow your passion and let your heart guide you to the right path.

Ultimately, you will only feel happy if you know that you are doing what you really love. You will even learn how to not obsess on a goal because you are just savoring every moment in your life. You will also realize that whether or not you will achieve something really big, you will be just as happy and fulfilled.

Important reminders:

When traveling, don’t think about your social media posts, take photos for yourself and not for others. Better yet, take photos only when you have already cherished the place.

Learn how to appreciate the small things. Take a pause just to smell the fresh flowers on your way to work. Appreciate the smiles of children heading to school. Be happy that you still have a job and you have something important to do for the day.

Say thank you to people around you even for the smallest things that they have done. Always let them know just how much you appreciate them.

Create smaller goals in life. If you really cannot let go of the idea that there is a bigger plan to achieve, create smaller objectives that are achievable on a daily or weekly basis.

Give yourself time to reflect and just be quiet. Amid the bustling noise in the city or the stressful nature of your work, you still need time to take a pause and just be quiet for a few minutes each day. This allows you to enjoy the moment and look back at all the positive things that happened during the day.

Don’t be defined by one definition of success. You can always find success even in the smallest things. You must have different sources of happiness and don’t let yourself be tied up to one goal as it could be really heartbreaking should you not achieve that goal. Just be you and do what you do best.

How do you define success? Comment below as we are curious to know!

Just Failed? Lift Yourself Up With These 5 Encouraging Thoughts

Have you had a failure that made you not want to get out of bed? I’ve just come back from a public speaking contest where I was unable to make the next round. I practiced hard but was unable to come up with a satisfying message. I worked hard but it felt like my efforts were wasted.

I wanted to redeem myself immediately but knew I couldn’t. I would have to wait and live with the negative feelings for a year until the next contest. Big failures crush your self-esteem, your confidence and your drive. Your morale is depleted and you question your goals and your self-worth. Getting out of bed hurts and you don’t want to try again.

While staying in bed sounds nice, you have to get up. Even with failure stinging your heart, you have to keep moving towards the future.

Motivating yourself again is tough but here are a few things you can tell yourself to feel positive again:

1. Failure Was Bound To Happen

Everyone wants to avoid failure, but you cannot be successful without it. The road to success has a few failures, it’s unavoidable. Success is not the smooth journey people make it out to be.

Before my loss, I had been winning at other public speaking contests. I did get the feeling of invincibility, but unfortunately I knew this would not last. As much as I hate failure, it is part of life. You can’t keep succeeding without encountering failure. You were going to fail eventually. It doesn’t mean that you deliberately tried to fail, but it had to happen at some point.

“Success is measured by how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” – George S. Patton

2. There Will Be A Second Chance

Unless you quit chasing your dreams entirely, there will always be another chance to try again. It is difficult to accept after a big failure, but deep down you know it is true. Even though I lost the contest, I knew there would be another one next year. It’s a long wait but I would be able to compete and hopefully succeed where I previously failed. Life is long enough that there are multiple opportunities to reach your goal. Things can change and you may not be facing the same landscape that you faced before, but that doesn’t mean success is gone forever.

3. There Might Be Something To Learn

As much as we like learning from our successes, our failures still have lessons they can teach us. Revisiting your failure might give you insight into why things went the way they did, and how you can stop it from happening the next time. Failed to prepare as much as you believed? Attention divided due to other issues? Underestimated the obstacles you had to overcome?

I’ve done all of these and more, which has resulted in failures that I’m not proud of. I still take a look to see what I can change next time. Looking at these mistakes and being honest with myself hurts, but it helps me learn what I can do differently. Don’t let the opportunity to learn pass you by because it’s painful to reflect. If you know there is something you can do to improve, take it as a learning experience.

4. Stop Thinking “That Should Be Me”

I should have landed that sale. I should be the one holding the trophy. I should be experiencing success instead of that person. It’s easy to fall into that line of thinking, especially if you were extremely close to succeeding. You can’t help but think you deserve success instead of failure, but this traps you in the past. It makes you reimagine your failure into success, and it feels wonderful. You want to live in that world.

It’s not a good thought to have. By believing that you should have succeeded, you’re not moving forward. Your mind will be replaying that moment, convincing you that everyone else was wrong and you were right. It’s hard to resist and you will inevitably have that thought, but success is not about thinking about what should have been. It’s about working on what could be.

5. You Are More Than Your Failures

After failing at something you put all your effort in, you can feel pathetic. You would not have failed if you were competent, if you were the person you said you were. But since you didn’t succeed, you must not be as great as you thought. Public speaking is my specialty, and I am upset when I fail. I feel that if I’m not good at my specialty, I’m a failure. If I can’t be the best speaker in the room, my entire worth as a human is non-existent.

But failing doesn’t mean you’re incompetent. Everyone fails, even the successful people you idolize. Failing doesn’t mean you’re doomed to mediocrity, it just means that you have more work to do. You have succeeded before, which means you’re not as bad as you believe. Failure is not representative of your ability. You may have to change, but you never lost your potential.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

I’ve had to live with my failures for a long time, but every time I licked my wounds and prepared myself for the next opportunity to succeed. Failure always hurts, especially if it’s big. You question your ability and your chances to succeed in the future.

The good news is, there will always be another time to succeed. Failing is part of life, it happens, but you don’t have to fail the same way twice. Learn from your failures, know that it doesn’t define your ability and get your head out of the past. You didn’t succeed today, but there’s always tomorrow.

How do you recover from failure? Comment below!

4 Steps to Help You Create Radical Momentum in Your Life

Do you ever find yourself with a goal in mind and you know the actions needed to get there, but you just can’t seem to get yourself to act on them? Positive momentum is what propels you to act effortlessly. Momentum first starts in the mind. Like everything around us, it begins as a thought and ends as a tangible success.

Implementing the following steps will not only make reaching your goal more fun, super rewarding, and easier, but it will also make the journey the best part:

1. Get yourself in a great feeling state

Whenever you want to create new momentum in a venture, the first step is always to get into a great feeling state. It is the most effective way to open up neural pathways and creativity in your mind. Humans naturally gravitate toward the subjects in their life that feel the best. Use positive emotion to saturate the idea of what you want.

That simple task will create a magnetic pull in your mind to what you desire. The most fertile place to plant the seed of this new idea is excitement! Every positive emotion about what you want waters it and helps it blossom. Meditation and breathing exercises are powerful techniques that foster the clean mental slate needed to create.

Tim Ferriss described that 80% of top performers in athletics, entertainment, and business employ daily meditation practices. Put happiness first. The best part of the process is dreaming about your destination. It’s the desire that we get the most juice. Once you get there you’ll feel like “Now what?” and a new desire will be there to take its place.

“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” – Colin Powell

2. Go directly to the end goal

From a positive state, program where you desire to go into your mind. Visualize a clear destination. The clearer your mind can see it while maintaining that positive state, the more powerful the answer will light up within your brain. Inspiration comes from the excitement of mentally transporting yourself to the actualized achievement.

See it as a movie in your mind. Virtually see yourself there, feeling the positive emotions for as long as it feels good. Extensive airtime dreaming about your desire creates the momentum. Write notes as if you have what you want in the present tense. Say it as if you have acquired it already to begin conditioning your subconscious mind and emotions into the feeling of having it.

The wheels will begin turning because now your dream will have a minor physical representation of itself. This conditioning will eliminate sabotage and will instill a feeling of deservability the more it is done.

3. Appreciation as fuel

Appreciation is the greatest internal motivator. Whatever you appreciate the crap out of, you create more of. The more you dream about the desired outcome, the more compelled you will be to take action and the more often positive things will come your way. If you appreciate them, they will grow. The milestones will grow and your momentum will exponentially increase.

The inspiration for better ideas will flow to you along with far more energy to act on them. Steve Jobs said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Appreciation is the path to loving every part of the journey. Being thankful for all positive gifts coming your way will condition you to receive vastly more.

You want to keep your inner monologue pure. The more you think and talk about something, the more momentum gets created. If you create negative momentum, it will work against you. If you begin to think negative thoughts about your desired outcome, it will begin to feel like stress. When it feels like stress, you won’t feel like taking action. That’s why appreciation is so vital- it will always help you feel good about your goal making the inspired action feel effortless.

“Change your expectation for appreciation and the world changes instantly.” – Tony Robbins

4. Letting it go

Overthinking kills momentum faster than anything. Give yourself a reprieve; life is about so much more than your goal anyway. Letting the subject go will bring a freshness to it in return. You avoid burnout and best of all create a more fulfilling life in other areas. Guiding your mind toward completely unrelated subjects will reset and refill your mental facilities.

Give yourself peace to find the clarity necessary to make the ideal decisions. This can come in the form of working out, taking a walk, going somewhere new, or anything that stimulates a different part of you!

Part of letting it go means keeping your ideas to yourself until they are solid in your mind. This allows them to stay clean from outside influence. Let go of the need to share your ideas before the momentum is powerful. The last component is taking each action in faith that you are on the way to your desire. Because what you are seeking, is also seeking you.

What are some things you do to create momentum in your life? Share with us below!

Trying to Build Charisma? Pay Attention to How You Speak

Have you ever listened to yourself talking and said how on earth do I sound that terrible? Most of us don`t realize they have voice issues until we accidentally listen to our voice or seek professional help. But the truth is, 38 percent of your charisma comes from the way you talk.(more…)

Marwan Jamal is a fitness and health blogger at healthline.com. He’s a great fan of the gym and a healthy diet. He follows the trends in fitness, gym, and healthy life and loves to share his knowledge through useful and informative articles.

23 Comments

First I was like; yes, yes, solid, classic advice with a modern touch. He is putting reading as number one, good job, good job…

Then I read: 11. Start a business

WHOA!

Starting a business is not for everyone. And that made me think. Maybe the title should be something like “setting yourself up for success in 12 months” or so. If you hit rock bottom, these things are not your first priority. And even if you have a good work and follow these nice little tactics to pump yourself up, why on Earth should you just start a business, if you want to ensure success? If it fails for some stupid reason, (or some good reason, like you have no plan, no education/experience, no extra savings) it sure could make you feel down. Losing money is never fun either. If everyone could launch a business that makes more money than their regular work, we would either run out of physical resources really fast or just have the worst period of inflation ever.

Trying to Build Charisma? Pay Attention to How You Speak

Have you ever listened to yourself talking and said how on earth do I sound that terrible? Most of us don`t realize they have voice issues until we accidentally listen to our voice or seek professional help. But the truth is, 38 percent of your charisma comes from the way you talk.

The more appealing your voice is to people, the more trust they`ll put in you, but the opposite is also true. Stuttering, talking too fast, not breathing properly, can ruin your charisma and make people unable to enjoy your company.

Here are a few things you can do to sound more charismatic anytime you open your mouth:

Learn how to talk slowly

Talking fast is anti-charismatic. I was a fast talker, in fact, I was the quickest talker my debate team ever had – a teacher whispered to me fifteen years ago – and it drove me crazy until I did the right thing and hired a coach. What I learned later was so simple, yet so useful, and it helped me to this day control the rate at which I speak.

First off, you need to figure out your exact rate of speech. Get an article and record yourself reading it at your natural rate for 2-5 minutes. Now, divide the total number of words you`ve read over the total number of minutes and you`ll get your words per minute count “wpm.” If your rate exceeds 175 wpm then you, my friend, are a fast talker and we need to change that.

How? Pay attention to the rate at which most people talk, especially on TV and radio. You need to get a feeling for how fast you should speak and bring that feeling into your consciousness. Next, set some time every morning to read out loud. Practice the same article/passage you started with earlier until you can hold it to +160 wpm. Once you`re okay with it, move to different reading materials.

“Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt

The third step is to bring what you`ve practiced to you daily life. Each day, pick one person and dedicate the entire conversation to speaking at a controlled pace. If you`re in this with someone, ask them to stop you as soon as you begin to talk faster. When this happens, stop, adjust, and get back to your controlled pace. You may feel pretentious but stay on the line. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will feel.

Use the power of pausing

Charisma is the mix between being liked and being equally respected. You need to convey power and you need to convey warmth both at the same time. And you can do this using two simple tricks: First, start reducing how quickly you reply to people and add more pauses to your speeches. Whenever it`s your turn to speak, pause for a couple of seconds before saying your first word. The second trick is to lower your tone at the end of important sentences to make an impact. Simply raise your voice at the beginning of the last sentence then go downhill from there.

Warm up every morning

If you have a morning routine, which I recommend you do, then you should integrate a few exercises to warm up you voice for a stronger tone and better pronunciation. This is what any self-respected voice coach will tell you.

So how to warm up? There are many things to do, some of which are:

Blowing through your lips

Blowing through tongue

Doing circles with your tongue and touching all your teeth

Yawning to exercise your soft palate

Overcome indecisiveness

You can call him wicked, morally corrupt or dishonest but how do you think Donald Trump has got his way into the White House? You can`t deny the fact that without his unbelievable conviction, the man who spends more time on Twitter than presidents of the P5 group combined wouldn`t have beaten all the odds and won the election.

The world, my friend, is a place where your ideas can mean nothing without the conviction to back them up. Hell, you can have people follow your utter nonsense and call you a leader with enough confidence and a few sharp words sprinkled on top of it. Several studies found that people follow leaders for the faith they convey not the ideas they pose, so imagine if you have both the right ideas and the rock-solid conviction in them. You`ll rock the world and bend it to your will.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

From my research, there are three ways to induce conviction in your conversations: preparation, intonation, and controlled practicing.

Preparation: Rehearsing what you`ll say before important meetings will help you sound more confident. Pick three interesting topics to talk about as you leave home, it`ll only take five minutes.

Intonation: Elevate your pitch as you stress over important words and keep it down as you finish a major sentence. Notice the difference between the following phrases: You can`t talk to me this way. You can “NOT” talk to me this way… Ever. Same words but different degrees of power. By raising your voice as you say “NOT,” you force the other person to take your words seriously. Watch CNN and see how reporters use a wide range of tones as they speak. Mimic them.

Controlled practicing: The next time you`re out with your buddies, pick a topic you know nothing about and talk about it with absolute conviction as if you`re the baddest badass of that topic. Eight times out of ten, your friends will accept your POV without much resistance. Pick-up artists use this exercise to overcome indecisiveness, and there`s nothing to stop you from using it to build your confidence.

So, where to start? Obviously, the best thing to do is hire a voice coach. They will hold you accountable and make sure you do the exercises on time. Warren Buffett still has his Dale Carnegie public-speaking certificate hung on his wall because of how it improved his life.

But what if you can’t afford a coach? Then I suggest you at least do 5 minutes of warming up each morning and set aside 10 more for reading out loud. If you can guarantee those 15 minutes every day for a year, then I’m sure your charisma will multiply.

How do you build charisma? Comment below!

It’s Not Always About the Goal, Sometimes the Journey Is More Important

There is nothing wrong in setting a goal in life in order to help manifest your vision of yourself years from now. These goals serve as a challenge so you will push yourself to do better. The only problem is when you become too obsessed with the bigger picture and you tend to forget the small details. You end up stressing out on how to get to the end that you no longer enjoy the process.

It is easy to lose sight on the most important things in life if you obsess on the bigger goal that needs to be achieved. You spend too much time planning and thinking how to move forward. You force yourself to forget everything else just because you really want to reach a goal. Take a step back and ask yourself, “Am I still happy?” “What have I missed because I was very goal-oriented?”

Eventually, you will realize that even if you have achieved the bigger goals, you have not found true happiness. It seems like you have won, but deep inside, it feels empty.

Let us take people who are traveling for instance, everyone is too busy taking photos and looking good in them instead of enjoying the sites and the entire experience. The lesson is to stop taking control of everything and savor the moment. Put the camera down and soak in the beauty of the moment.

Here are 5 reasons why the journey you’re on is more important than the eventual goal:

1. Achieving goals doesn’t mean you are successful

One of the reasons why people obsess with what the future holds is because they think that achieving goals means they have succeeded in life. By constantly doing this, you anchor your entire existence on that goal. The moment you fail in achieving the goal, you think that you are a big failure, which is not true. If you enjoy the process, regardless of the outcome, you will still feel good. You have traveled, learned from your mistakes, met people and become inspired.

2. Life is about making memories

For instance, you are running a business. You have this idea that you can only call yourself successful if you have made lots of money. Whether it is in business or in life, creating memories is more important than raking in lots of income. It is about the people you have helped by employing them.

It is also about the customers who were satisfied because you cared for their needs. It is also about how you overcome the challenges with your entire team, along with the members of your family. These moments, big or small, create great memories. Cherish them and you will be happy.

“Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” – Rosa Parks

3. The plan won’t always be perfect

Again, there is nothing wrong in having a plan. It is great if you know where to go first and what to do next. However, this should come with the mentality that not all things will go as planned. Nothing will ever go the way they are meant to be. There are unexpected changes along the way.

The key is how you embrace things that happened not according to plan and still find meaning in them. Happiness is about going with the flow. It is about trusting that good things will surely come along the way. It is also in letting go of a rigid plan that you learn to embrace life in all its complexities and uncertainties.

The biggest problem when you are too obsessed in following a plan is that you are consumed with the idea that there is only one path. There is no other path towards success and you should stick with what you are already comfortable of. Along the way, you will feel too comfortable that you are no longer willing to take the risk.

You are too scared to step out of your current path. You don’t want to move away because you think it will derail the achievement of your goals. You are no longer excited in trying new things. Soon, your life becomes really dry and you won’t see the meaning of everything that you do.

“Step so far outside your comfort zone that you forget how to get back.”

5. It is about following your heart

Take a moment to reflect and think about the plan that you had right from the start. Is it really what you want, or are you just doing it because it is how success was defined by people around you? Delve deeper and listen to your heart.

You might be on a path that you don’t really want, but you are forced to be in. Listen to your heart’s desires and this will make you a better person. Learn how to follow your passion and let your heart guide you to the right path.

Ultimately, you will only feel happy if you know that you are doing what you really love. You will even learn how to not obsess on a goal because you are just savoring every moment in your life. You will also realize that whether or not you will achieve something really big, you will be just as happy and fulfilled.

Important reminders:

When traveling, don’t think about your social media posts, take photos for yourself and not for others. Better yet, take photos only when you have already cherished the place.

Learn how to appreciate the small things. Take a pause just to smell the fresh flowers on your way to work. Appreciate the smiles of children heading to school. Be happy that you still have a job and you have something important to do for the day.

Say thank you to people around you even for the smallest things that they have done. Always let them know just how much you appreciate them.

Create smaller goals in life. If you really cannot let go of the idea that there is a bigger plan to achieve, create smaller objectives that are achievable on a daily or weekly basis.

Give yourself time to reflect and just be quiet. Amid the bustling noise in the city or the stressful nature of your work, you still need time to take a pause and just be quiet for a few minutes each day. This allows you to enjoy the moment and look back at all the positive things that happened during the day.

Don’t be defined by one definition of success. You can always find success even in the smallest things. You must have different sources of happiness and don’t let yourself be tied up to one goal as it could be really heartbreaking should you not achieve that goal. Just be you and do what you do best.

How do you define success? Comment below as we are curious to know!

Just Failed? Lift Yourself Up With These 5 Encouraging Thoughts

Have you had a failure that made you not want to get out of bed? I’ve just come back from a public speaking contest where I was unable to make the next round. I practiced hard but was unable to come up with a satisfying message. I worked hard but it felt like my efforts were wasted.

I wanted to redeem myself immediately but knew I couldn’t. I would have to wait and live with the negative feelings for a year until the next contest. Big failures crush your self-esteem, your confidence and your drive. Your morale is depleted and you question your goals and your self-worth. Getting out of bed hurts and you don’t want to try again.

While staying in bed sounds nice, you have to get up. Even with failure stinging your heart, you have to keep moving towards the future.

Motivating yourself again is tough but here are a few things you can tell yourself to feel positive again:

1. Failure Was Bound To Happen

Everyone wants to avoid failure, but you cannot be successful without it. The road to success has a few failures, it’s unavoidable. Success is not the smooth journey people make it out to be.

Before my loss, I had been winning at other public speaking contests. I did get the feeling of invincibility, but unfortunately I knew this would not last. As much as I hate failure, it is part of life. You can’t keep succeeding without encountering failure. You were going to fail eventually. It doesn’t mean that you deliberately tried to fail, but it had to happen at some point.

“Success is measured by how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” – George S. Patton

2. There Will Be A Second Chance

Unless you quit chasing your dreams entirely, there will always be another chance to try again. It is difficult to accept after a big failure, but deep down you know it is true. Even though I lost the contest, I knew there would be another one next year. It’s a long wait but I would be able to compete and hopefully succeed where I previously failed. Life is long enough that there are multiple opportunities to reach your goal. Things can change and you may not be facing the same landscape that you faced before, but that doesn’t mean success is gone forever.

3. There Might Be Something To Learn

As much as we like learning from our successes, our failures still have lessons they can teach us. Revisiting your failure might give you insight into why things went the way they did, and how you can stop it from happening the next time. Failed to prepare as much as you believed? Attention divided due to other issues? Underestimated the obstacles you had to overcome?

I’ve done all of these and more, which has resulted in failures that I’m not proud of. I still take a look to see what I can change next time. Looking at these mistakes and being honest with myself hurts, but it helps me learn what I can do differently. Don’t let the opportunity to learn pass you by because it’s painful to reflect. If you know there is something you can do to improve, take it as a learning experience.

4. Stop Thinking “That Should Be Me”

I should have landed that sale. I should be the one holding the trophy. I should be experiencing success instead of that person. It’s easy to fall into that line of thinking, especially if you were extremely close to succeeding. You can’t help but think you deserve success instead of failure, but this traps you in the past. It makes you reimagine your failure into success, and it feels wonderful. You want to live in that world.

It’s not a good thought to have. By believing that you should have succeeded, you’re not moving forward. Your mind will be replaying that moment, convincing you that everyone else was wrong and you were right. It’s hard to resist and you will inevitably have that thought, but success is not about thinking about what should have been. It’s about working on what could be.

5. You Are More Than Your Failures

After failing at something you put all your effort in, you can feel pathetic. You would not have failed if you were competent, if you were the person you said you were. But since you didn’t succeed, you must not be as great as you thought. Public speaking is my specialty, and I am upset when I fail. I feel that if I’m not good at my specialty, I’m a failure. If I can’t be the best speaker in the room, my entire worth as a human is non-existent.

But failing doesn’t mean you’re incompetent. Everyone fails, even the successful people you idolize. Failing doesn’t mean you’re doomed to mediocrity, it just means that you have more work to do. You have succeeded before, which means you’re not as bad as you believe. Failure is not representative of your ability. You may have to change, but you never lost your potential.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

I’ve had to live with my failures for a long time, but every time I licked my wounds and prepared myself for the next opportunity to succeed. Failure always hurts, especially if it’s big. You question your ability and your chances to succeed in the future.

The good news is, there will always be another time to succeed. Failing is part of life, it happens, but you don’t have to fail the same way twice. Learn from your failures, know that it doesn’t define your ability and get your head out of the past. You didn’t succeed today, but there’s always tomorrow.

How do you recover from failure? Comment below!

4 Steps to Help You Create Radical Momentum in Your Life

Do you ever find yourself with a goal in mind and you know the actions needed to get there, but you just can’t seem to get yourself to act on them? Positive momentum is what propels you to act effortlessly. Momentum first starts in the mind. Like everything around us, it begins as a thought and ends as a tangible success.

Implementing the following steps will not only make reaching your goal more fun, super rewarding, and easier, but it will also make the journey the best part:

1. Get yourself in a great feeling state

Whenever you want to create new momentum in a venture, the first step is always to get into a great feeling state. It is the most effective way to open up neural pathways and creativity in your mind. Humans naturally gravitate toward the subjects in their life that feel the best. Use positive emotion to saturate the idea of what you want.

That simple task will create a magnetic pull in your mind to what you desire. The most fertile place to plant the seed of this new idea is excitement! Every positive emotion about what you want waters it and helps it blossom. Meditation and breathing exercises are powerful techniques that foster the clean mental slate needed to create.

Tim Ferriss described that 80% of top performers in athletics, entertainment, and business employ daily meditation practices. Put happiness first. The best part of the process is dreaming about your destination. It’s the desire that we get the most juice. Once you get there you’ll feel like “Now what?” and a new desire will be there to take its place.

“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” – Colin Powell

2. Go directly to the end goal

From a positive state, program where you desire to go into your mind. Visualize a clear destination. The clearer your mind can see it while maintaining that positive state, the more powerful the answer will light up within your brain. Inspiration comes from the excitement of mentally transporting yourself to the actualized achievement.

See it as a movie in your mind. Virtually see yourself there, feeling the positive emotions for as long as it feels good. Extensive airtime dreaming about your desire creates the momentum. Write notes as if you have what you want in the present tense. Say it as if you have acquired it already to begin conditioning your subconscious mind and emotions into the feeling of having it.

The wheels will begin turning because now your dream will have a minor physical representation of itself. This conditioning will eliminate sabotage and will instill a feeling of deservability the more it is done.

3. Appreciation as fuel

Appreciation is the greatest internal motivator. Whatever you appreciate the crap out of, you create more of. The more you dream about the desired outcome, the more compelled you will be to take action and the more often positive things will come your way. If you appreciate them, they will grow. The milestones will grow and your momentum will exponentially increase.

The inspiration for better ideas will flow to you along with far more energy to act on them. Steve Jobs said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Appreciation is the path to loving every part of the journey. Being thankful for all positive gifts coming your way will condition you to receive vastly more.

You want to keep your inner monologue pure. The more you think and talk about something, the more momentum gets created. If you create negative momentum, it will work against you. If you begin to think negative thoughts about your desired outcome, it will begin to feel like stress. When it feels like stress, you won’t feel like taking action. That’s why appreciation is so vital- it will always help you feel good about your goal making the inspired action feel effortless.

“Change your expectation for appreciation and the world changes instantly.” – Tony Robbins

4. Letting it go

Overthinking kills momentum faster than anything. Give yourself a reprieve; life is about so much more than your goal anyway. Letting the subject go will bring a freshness to it in return. You avoid burnout and best of all create a more fulfilling life in other areas. Guiding your mind toward completely unrelated subjects will reset and refill your mental facilities.

Give yourself peace to find the clarity necessary to make the ideal decisions. This can come in the form of working out, taking a walk, going somewhere new, or anything that stimulates a different part of you!

Part of letting it go means keeping your ideas to yourself until they are solid in your mind. This allows them to stay clean from outside influence. Let go of the need to share your ideas before the momentum is powerful. The last component is taking each action in faith that you are on the way to your desire. Because what you are seeking, is also seeking you.

What are some things you do to create momentum in your life? Share with us below!